Category: Samples

This was the second sample I done using string to “cage” the mannequin but this time I also used bandages, at this point I was planning for the photo shoot and was trying to picture different things I could do and the different types of images I could take.

I like how the string and the bandages look next to each other, I feel the string looks tighter and stronger vs. the bandage, and it would press and burn the skin, whereas the bandages would just softly lay on top, but visually the bandages offer up something more, especially since we associate them with injuries and as a way to “fix something which is broken”, so using them almost tells a story and obviously makes the viewer wonder.

Throughout this project I have liked/enjoyed the idea of being caged or trapped in something whether literal or emotionally, possibly even spiritually. I’ve always dabbled a bit into this within my imagery and samples, but this is more of an obvious example of this, by wrapping the mannequin in string you “cage” it but the ironic thing is that its already “caged” because the mannequin itself can’t just get p and easily move anyway, so you’re trapping something that is already closed off and caged anyway.

I like the way these pictures came out and I wanted to use this string for the photo shoot I done, but due to a short time frame and a lack of notice I couldn’t.

This was when I started my small (A5) brainstorm book, this is where I would quickly note down an idea that came to mind while I was out and I would just scribble it in.

I also done a few “trial” samples inside, this one I done using the Old English stencil and using my red malleable wax, the quote reads “Skin Me”, the inspiration was from a double page in my sketchbook where I showed “blood” and “skin”.

The reason for this macabre-ish phrase is to show, what people are willing to do in the sacrifice ritual in order to get what they want.

This was just a quick rough sample, but I like how raw it is and I really enjoy how the wax dried quite thick on the page, making the “blood” touchable, putting you that much closer to the event that took place.

Now that I’m starting to put my FMP together and I’m starting to get it ready for the exhibition, I’ve decided that I would make most of it at home.

I wanted to have the candles seem like they have been used, time and time again, I wanted it to have little pile-ups of wax surrounding the candle; the reason for this is because I wanted them to look like old ritual candles that had been used in several different rituals.

The way I made this possible was by lighting the candles (obviously) and by using a toothpick and dragged down the tip of the sides of the candles to make the hot wax run. I also had a little metal measuring jug that I had pre-melted wax inside and I would pour this over the burning candles.

The way I made it stick to the glass plate was to melt the base of the candle and press it onto the plate.

Overall I am very pleased with the outcomes and I feel the give off the effect I was looking for!

After making the candles I decided to jump straight into making the arm/hand casts, but because this is something I hadn’t done before it proved to be quite difficult. The arm was the easiest section, but the hands are what took the most effort and time.

Because the fingers were so closely spaced together I had to cut the plaster into much smaller strips to be able to fit inside the caps.

To create the mannequin hand was the hardest part, luckily there were 3 fingers that were spaced-out enough so I could cast them with ease, unfortunately the ring and middle finger were a lot harder to do.

Fortunately because these casts were meant to be remains of the dead who have been used in sacrifice, they could be missing a finger or two, but I still wanted to attempt to do at least the base of the finger instead of having a huge gap.

To do this I needed the assistance of my mother, because I would need her to hold things together while I made the mold, she used a thin butter knife to get in between the gaps between the fingers and I would put pressure under the strips to make the natural curves on the fingers, after doing this for about an hour we finally managed to join it all up and be finished, now all we had to do was remove it from the fiber glass arm.

Because there wasn’t a barrier between the plaster steps and the fiber glass arm, the plaster stuck and proved to be difficult to remove, this mean that we would have to cut it in half and plaster the two sides together again, this too took a while but we managed in the end.

Since the first arm took so long to do and required too much effort we decided to just use the mannequins arm for the next cast but use my mothers fingers, even though my mothers fingers were slightly larger than that of the mannequins, I like the effect it has and it also shows that these Satanists sacrificed more than one person.

We manipulated the wet plaster strips and would press/squeeze them to form vein lines to make them more realistic.

When I’m doing the pages in my sketchbook, I want to make each page different than the last one, I want to be as creative as possible and I enjoy including different materials and textures, with my sketchbook I have used, fabric, latex, wax, sand paper, paint etc. I understand that depending on what materials I use it puts forward a different message, this double page I started with the notion of mortality and the human body.

The left page is to symbolize blood, and the soft (fabric) fragility of the human body especially when introduced to something such as Satan himself, since then I have painted into the white page and added red wax to the piece to show drips of “blood”.

The right page is latex form a sample I attempted earlier on, this is the “skin” once its dead, cold and stiff, I still have to decide what I want to do with this page.

After I had finished doing all the samples with the bodies of the dolls, I just had a “collection” of doll heads in my space, and I noticed that these bodiless heads were quite horrifying to certain people so I decided to push this a little further.

At the time me and a friend (fashion student) were sharing my space, I was focusing on my dolls and mannequin and she was doing a fashion styling project on schizophrenia, when she was struggling with sample ideas I told her that she could use the doll heads if she wanted, she gladly took them, but after a while she was stuck as to what she should do with them, and this was when I came up with the idea to “drown” one in ink, and I quite liked the look of it myself.

I don’t think I will ultimately do something like this, but it was still fun to experiment and to try something out.